Lesotho is a band that really stretches on the post-metal muscles and often crosses the line into post-rock beauty as well as a bleaker post-black atmosphere. The Boston instrumental trio create rich, captivating tracks which are full of texture and riffs that strike a juxtaposition between relaxing, energetic and deeply immersive. Debut album Through the Dying Light really balances sweet emotive release along with grounding gritty reality, to do so without a single word is a testament to how wonderful this album is when absorbed with attention.
I may tell a slight fib when I say not a word spoken, as mid point ambient drone track ‘Floater’ does have spoken word by Molly Grace Chandler and actually then accentuates the immediate impactful guitar work on ‘Running Down The Sides’, but still the musicianship is the real star on show here. Recorded in the same studio as the post-metal icon Oceanic by ISIS, Through The Dying Light does the studio justice with an opulence encapsulated in the mix by Mario Quintero of Spotlights.
From the post-rock side of things ‘Flicker’ really meets the line of heavy post-rock as it builds to a plateau before hitting the real crescendo in a similar vein to Coastland or If These Tree Could Talk. At the same time the instrumentation in tracks such as ‘Crown of Echoes’ and ‘Truth’ can sound like slower moments of Russian post-black band TRNA, yet also fill the realm of post-rock and the mix in dynamics keeps this album moving.
With Through the Dying Light the band has demonstrated a beautiful ability to hit heavy but also strike an uplifting positive chord. The atmosphere of the album is very warm but emits feelings of sorrow, anger and peace so never feels one dimensional. Passing so many genre familiarities without crashing their party is a wondrous achievement and Through the Dying Light is an exemplary album to bliss out to.
